MURPIIV ; 
P1CX(U'INS Ol' SOrTII (',l‘()R(ilA. 
127 
they had cleared the ed^e. I saw one individual try a dozen times and 
fail ; it alwaws lea|)ed a few lengths too soon and whacked its shiny 
breast against the wall of ice. A groii]) of birds, which had been sunning 
on a snow l)ank, entered the water as if by inntnal agreement. vSome of 
them walked to the rocky slo])e and waded, arching their necks and 
tucking their heads under water before the>' made the ])limge. Others 
flo|)l^ed off the edge of the ice. I say flo]^])ed becan.se they did not make 
graceful standing dives, such as I had ex]^ected ; on the contrarx' the\- 
entered with flagrant, spla.shing “ belly-bum])ers. ” All of the 1)irds 
when first going into the \vater executed a curious maneuver, the object 
of which I do not under.stand. Immediately after the ])lnnge they came 
to the surface and lay stiffly, first on one side of their bodies, then on the 
other, and beat with the U])permost wing and foot, kicking the latter 
back and forth, and rubbing the wing across the feathers of the side, as 
if tr>-ing to wet themselves thoroughl}’.'-' 
The great discrepanc\' between Pyooscclis papua and P. adclicc in 
jumping and diving ability is at fir.st sight rather sur]n'i.sing. Through 
the medium of the films taken during the Australasian Antarctic Ex- 
])edition I have seen the jmodigious, sahiionlike leaps of the ]ducky little 
i\delies, while the ]diotographs of Levick well illustrate the graceful 
dives of these denizens of uttermost southern shores. It must be borne 
in mind, however, that /’. papua, with a Subantarctic range, breeds on 
no land which has an ice-shelved coast. The ability to gain the land by 
a catapultic sindiig has doubtless vanished with the disappearance of the 
nece.ssity for such a method. Occasionally I saw johnny penguins on the 
\-erv brinks of vSouth Georgia glaciers where they abutted on the ba>'s, 
but in all such instances the birds had climbed up over a sloping edge, 
and they inv'ariably returned by the same route. 
The johniiN' ])enguins often feed far at sea, at least .sixt\- or sevent\- 
kilometers from the coa.st of .South Georgia, but during the long breed- 
ing .sea.son the>' a])parentl>' all return to the land for the night. In the 
late afternoon we usually .saw long troops of them ])ori)oising into the 
fiords from .sea. This habit is so well known that .sealers, overtaken in 
their l)oats b\' an impenetrable South Georgian fog, rel,v upon the home- 
coming ])enguins for the direction of the fiat beaches. 
Con.sidering the fact that mo.st natatorial birds .swim as .soon as the>- 
* Writing of I'\xnscrlh- adi’litr, Clarke, p. 22<). reports : “ .\fter tliev dive they rc)ll over and over 
in the water, and wash themselves thoroughly with the aid of their feel, gradtially getting rid of the 
red dirt with which they are bespattered and smeared." 
